Detective Constable Simon Smith said: "These three individuals came to the UK from Romania with the sole intention of committing crime.

"They worked together to prey on the elderly and vulnerable who they saw as easy targets. Their eldest victim was a 98 year old man. His bank card was stolen and they attempted to use it to pay for thousands of pounds worth of goods.

"They also targeted a partially sighted woman and several people aged in their 80s.

"This trio clearly have no conscience and did not give a second thought to the impact on their victims.

"We were able to identify them through CCTV enquiries and the use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) technology. All three had previous convictions in this country and their home country. The most serious of which is Mereson's conviction in Romania for murder where he was jailed for eight years in 1998."